HAPPY HALLOWEEN (Week 51)

Dear Family,

Happy Halloween!! Are you already for this week and have your costumes ;) hopefully this year you will have more trick or treaters this year because there were not that many last year.  How has everything been going? Thank you for the emails, AND.... Thank Grandma Burr and Marla and Brother Campbell for the letters, I got them and read them before emailing :)

This week has been very interesting.  So we found out where Silver lives, he and his mom are both studying and are hardly in the house and so we set an appointment for saturday but then he couldn't but he still came to church and came to a FHE so that is great... but we still have yet to teach him!

Ci: He is from Nigeria.  Actually his story is pretty interesting.  So he wanted to go to the United States so he paid for a boat pass, but they didn't take him there and they took him to brazil, and from what I have heard he walked from there to Uruguay, and now he is working here to earn money, but apparently his story is all of the radio.  And so he was a reference from the elders (one of the actually is from nigeria) and so we finally went to see him on saturday and gave him a book of mormon in english and he is great! We invited him to be baptized on the 15 and accepted so we will see, and he came to church!! He is really willing to learn to do follow God.

M: This guy we found that has a little boy and we thought that he and his girlfriend were together but they are only living in the same house and she is searching for a house.... and he really wants to be baptized but still needs to come to church and do a couple of other things.

V and A: A is a less active and V is her boyfriend and we went over to teach them and like halfway through the lesson V comes in and we then start teaching about Jose Smith and the Book of Mormon and we invited him to read and pray about it and he said yes and the we invited him to be baptized and he said yes, and ¨I also want to marry her¨ haha it was so cool! We have a charla with them this thursday.

AN: He hasn't been coming to church and he has kinda been avoiding us, and he said that it is because he was helping with elections.. so we set a meeting with him and will be seeing him on tuesday, and I will let you all know what happens.

We had a multi-zone conference this week and president and the assistances came up and also another zone 33, and we really talked about ch 11 in PME about compromisos and then we did practices for an hour and a half ha! And at the very end they called up random people to bear testimony and I was one of the three!

This week we have found lots of people that say they don't believe in God and then later in the conversation say they do, or we found another person that I think is from another church and nows the bible really well and was like testing us so that was weird.. but we invited him to be baptized and he accepted and we will be going back so that'll be good.

So I am really working in PME and am trying to complete all of the activities and I wanted to ask you all, what blessings have you recieved for your obedience to the law of tithing and also to keeping the sabbath day holy?

Thank you for all that you do to keep going strong and for your faithfulness, I know that God is blessing us, all of you, and I as we work to bring others unto Christ.  Thank you for your support and love, I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!

Love,

Hermana Louder

:) (Week 50)

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the wonderful emails, I really liked them, just what I needed.  I'm glad you were all able to enjoy a fun fall break and thank you for the pictures! :)

Well training has been good, though I definitely fall short of everything.  But as President Eyring said:“The Lord knows you. He knows whom He would have serve in every position in His Church. Hechose you.^¨   And President Monson: “When we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’shelp. Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”

I am learning so much from her, she is great! I know that we are supposed to be companions and that we will and are growing so much.

Well the other day we were walking and talking to everyone but we had to get to a charla and we saw a mother and son walking, and decided to quickly invite them to church and to a sport activity that we had on Saturday, and they told us their names and it ended up being a reference we had had from a recent convert and he told us (the son-S) that he would come! So Saturday we go and he was right on time and we played volleyball and soccer.  And then we invited him to church.  So the next day is Sunday and we go to church and then we had to go look for investigators and we come back for relief society and then we go out to look again and we get back and now it's about thirty minutes before sacrament meeting, and we don't have any investigators and no one has come.  The other hermanas walk in and we start talking and how neither of us had investigators and then they are like, Silver is here, he has been here since nine.  WHATP?! are you serious! It was a miracle! He came all by himself and stayed the whole time! But right after sacrament meeting he left so fast! So now we don't know where he lives... but we are going to find him and we now mas o menos donde vive. But it was sooo amazing.

Entonces we don't really have any investigators because everyone that said they would come didn't, but we are going to keep working harder and harder each week.

Random notes for you: The bugs have come, and I got bitten alive but now I have started using the stuff you sent me, thank you! The dogs hate us hehehe! There are four of us living in the house, Hermana Tejada, Hermana Smouse, Hermana Townley, and I, and there are all so great! The book for training is called 12 weeks (I'm pretty sure by the church), and basically you use that PME and the district videos and lots of practices of course! And then you put it all in action during the week. I am playing the piano in church and it has been well...... interesting. We go to the church every morning to work out there and we are definitely improving our workouts. We have a multizone conference this week.

Bueno, that's about everything I can think about, but everything is going great.  Really it seems like when you are up in the clouds, then everything comes down, and really tests you.  And it has been good.  I am really learning how to rely on the Lord and give everything, though I'm not perfect and no where near, I know that my Savior and his grace are sufficent and that he is always here to help us, we just need to call on him. Always remember him.

I love you all so much!! I hope school and work are going great and that the marriages can wait a couple months..... cough cough. hahaha... but I love you all and have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Hermana Louder

FAM BAM!! :) (Week 49)

Dear Family,

Well how is life for you all? The new movie that you saw sounds interesting.. ohhh how are the peach trees doing?! Ah and don't forget to send me pictures of you all every now and then, or everyweek if you so desire :)

My companion: Hermana Tejada! She is 19 years old and if from Peru, she is so cute! And still getting used to the missionary work like all of us at the beginning.  and actually I just found out that she pretty much speaks perfect english becaue I saw her writting in her journal and it was in english! But she hadn't really talked to me in english before that haha, she is so sneaky.  She is great, and is teaching me so much, things I hadn't noticed before or how to find the needs, she is really good at that.  But she is a little shy and I'm sure it's because it's the beginning of the mission, so I talk alot more now.  And I'm trying to do my best because well she literally watches my every move! A mini me :) And she is awesome!

So this week we have been finding a lot of people and as it says in the training book that the new missionary should take the lead in inviting people to be baptized, so the first day we were together I invited everyone so she could see, and these past couple of days have been awesome! She is inviting everyone to be baptized! ha I love it! And so we were waiting for four people to come to church, but no one came :( We went and looked and called but no one.  And Andres didn't come and he didn't really want to tell us why either so we don't know what we are going to do there.

No worries about the mascara mom, I still have a lot and I think I will be good now until the end of the mission. haha, but really thank you for everything!

But family and mom and dad really thank you for helping me so much, just looking at my baptism photos brings back childhood memories, or just the other day we were talking about on p-day what we were like as children and I said that you guys had to tie all of the chairs to the table because I would climb every where.  But more than that I am so grateful for all the many things you have taught me, in our FHE, family scripture and prayer, and personal, the importance of the temple, to stick to my standards, for being modest, for always forgiving, for being worthy, serving others and giving what we can, not gossiping and looking for the best, love. There are so many things well eveything I have learned is thanks to the wonderful family that I have and that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with you.  I love you all so much and words nor actions can express it, but know that I love you. Thank you for all that you do and for the support that you give me and for the prayers, and can feel them.  Keep being happy! :)

Love,

Hermana Louder

TRANSFERS... (Week 48)

Dear Family,

This past week was amazing!! Such a great week! I have been learning so much and wow, the time is just flying by.

Well I got your package!! Thank you so much for the letters and the contact solution and treats and shirt! Love you all!! 

TRANSFERS: Bueno. I will be staying here for another change, which is awesome because I love Melo. And... I will be training!! So we leave tonight in the night or tomorrow really early in the morning and we will go to meet our oros tomorrow! Hermana Smouse and I will both be training here in Centenario so that'll be really fun! But please, pray for me.

Just so you all know, I did use the winter stuff, everything!! The sleeping bag the gloves the boots the tights ,everything, so thank you!!

Well conference was amazing. A. actually came to three sessions! He is still smoking.. but he is letting go little by little and he has a date for next saturday, other than him, he really is our only sturdy investigator for right now.

Conference: A couple highlights no much because I don't have too much time.

President Uchtdorf OBEDIENCE. It's a good thing! We need to have this desire and do it for the right reason, love him and obey him. Do everything you can and live the gospel joyfully.  You will discover your best self- your real self.

Elder Oaks: I actually have been questioning really how can I love everyone, and this was perfect for me. And really I just loved it all and that we need to love one another, it doesn't matter the differents see them as children of God, our brothers and sisters.. ¨Though we disagree we should not be disagreeable¨

Elder Klebignat: There was just so much to right and he was talking so fast.. but his number two hit me, that we need to take responsibility for your own phsyical wellbeing.. so I really need to do that. Apply the atonement daily.

President Monson: I loved it and we are always striving to be more like Christ. But we don't just want to walk where Jesus walked, but AS he walked. He will take us home.

I love you all so much and thank you for sharing your experiences and things that you learn and that are happening in your lives with me. I love you all!!!

Love,

Hermana Louder